Saturday, June 29, 2013

Two Hospitalized, One Critically, in Mastiff/Pitbull Mix Attack Near Temecula

CALIFORNIA -- An elderly man and air-conditioning repairman were hospitalized Friday following attacks by the same dog in an unincorporated part of Riverside County near Temecula, officials said.

The attacks both happened around 9:30 a.m. in the 39000 block of Salinas Drive, near Murrieta Hot Springs and Winchester roads, according to Riverside County Department of Animal Services Spokesman John Welsh.

"It was two separate incidents that happened somewhat apart of each other," Welsh told Patch.

First bit by the male dog, described as a 90-pound Neopolitan Mastiff / pit bull mix, was the air-conditioning repairman who was at the residence working, according to Welsh.

"He reported the dog bite when he was at the hospital," he said. "Then the 80-year-old was attacked [at the same residence.]"

That unidentified 80-year-old man, the father of the dog's owner, was severely injured, and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital, according to the spokesman.

"The dog bit the man in the stomach, both arms, puncturing arteries, and also bit the man on the back of one of his knees," Welsh said.

The dog, named Stacks, was ultimately shot twice by a responding sheriff's deputy-- but that didn't kill him.

"The dog was found at a nearby home in the 39000 block of Tangletree Way and he was impounded by a Riverside County Animal Services officer," Welsh said. "Animal Services contacted the dog owner and the owner signed over the animal for humane euthanasia."

Welsh said the dog was likely worked up from the first attack, prompting the second one.

"He was probably very familiar with the dog," Welsh said of the man's relationship with the canine, adding that he did not live at the residence, but was visiting.